Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

April 17, 2014

‘Theatre of Doors’ at the Alchemist’s Gallery, 11th April

I visited another show in the Alchemist’s Gallery the other day, the ‘Theatre of Doors’, which had a series of works that fascinated me , and was a rather bitter-sweet time overall; being the gallery’s last show under the hold of the Modern Alchemists ( I attended the ‘Salad Days’ exhibition the previous week, but didn’t find much work there to inspire me).

Kimberley Elizabeth Jones

Much like the rest of the pieces on show, they do not appear to be named, or have the names hidden from the viewing public, which I believe is a very interesting idea for sure. As the title of the exhibition was labelled ‘The Theatre of Doors’ we see connections between the openings of these ‘doors’ and the worlds that each inhabits and holds the passage to. We can all derive our own personal views and opinion son them, without any input from the artist on narrative.

Anyway, to the point of the matter; I love the absolute simplicity of these pieces. They exude a beauty unlike anything i’ve seen before, except perhaps in the beauty of reflections (I will elaborate on this more in my next post). I really like the monochromatic colour of the piece as well, and the relation between the object and the imprint; despite not being a common advocate of printmaking. Although it does harken to some forms of mark-making techniques in illustrative forms, as if it could have been drawn with a pen.

Tom Kitchen

Quite possibly my favourite piece in the entirety of the exhibition, this drawing by Kitchen incorporates Geometric circles in a seemingly ‘magical’ format. I immediately think of Alchemical circles when I see this, but combinations of the trinity of the most prevalent geometric shapes (Circle, Triangle, Square) are instantly recognisable by people the world over. The linework and attention to detail, as well as the intricacy of the pen work is technically masterful, but does not appear realistic; no, it still seems like a drawing, but this adds to the piece as a whole; it removes it from reality, creates a universe in which this Dog (which is possibly dead) resides. The Symbolism is also very beautiful; the ‘Magical’ circle brings forth ideas of transmutation and reincarnation, couple with the Dog with Human skulls tied to it, near the womb, which we can assume is a comment on the ideas of birth and death and the life cycle. There seems to be a hearkening back to withcraft here; as if this is a spell in which they are trying to curse a fellow human being, or quite possibly hex them, causing a great tragedy to befall them. Truly fascinating.

Ruby Fox

This is an incredibly interesting piece; it reminds me of Francis Bacon, but a far cleaner, more refined style of painting than his. It is very well painted, and does evoke an emotion response in the viewer; I felt Apprehension, whereas my friend, Sam Wall (http://samjwall.wordpress.com/) said that he saw an ‘unhinged’ aspect to the piece, which I began to perceive as well. There seems to be a person at odds with themselves, of which humanity is completely guilty of being, and this brings this issue to the forefront of the viewers mind. Very intriguing as a piece, this was.